*The Chinese Exclusion Act

What It Can Teach Us About America: Author Reading

Please join Benjamin Railton, PhD, Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts, as he talks about and reads from his recent publication, The Chinese Exclusion Act: What It Can Teach Us about America. This provocative study uses the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act to explore two critical strands in American Studies: policy conversations on legal and illegal immigration as well as social and educational conversations on diversity and multiculturalism. At the same time, it highlights stories - such as those of the Angel Island poets and of Yung Wing and the 120 students at his Chinese Educational Mission - that give a hopeful and instructive perspective on the challenges of today.